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Saturday, January 2, 2010

Diamond Model of the Philosophy of Exp Ed - Itin 1999

I'm going to be posting some models of both experiential education and environmental education in hopes of indentifying overlaps and possibly even combining models so that one could see the process of experiential environmental education.  If you know of any models that you think would be helpful, please let me know!



Diamond Model of the Philosophy of Experiential Education


Christian M. Itin 1999


        Itin’s philosophy of experiential education stems from the writings and beliefs of three significant figures in education: John Dewey, Kurt Hahn, and Paulo Freire. John Dewey addressed the importance of associating experience with reflection and therefore understanding with action. He also expressed that education is a critical part in preparing individuals to participate in a democratic society. Kurt Hahn, the founder of Outward Bound, was concerned with using education and experience to develop citizens that had the capability to better serve their communities. Paulo Freire, a radical Brazilian educator, believed in educating people on the premise of awakening their consciousness concerning political issues. All three of these educational figures were concerned with raising student self efficacy in order to increase political awareness (Itin 1999).

          Itin draws on these figure’s philosophies, James Davis’ framework of teaching, and the Association of Experiential Education’s Principles of Experiential Education in order to develop a definition and model of experiential education. Itin’s model has four main components: student, teacher, subject, and environment. The model implies that the relationships between these components are interactive and transactive, meaning that the components interact as well as exchange knowledge. The teaching process is not determined by a specific approach which allows for flexibility when working with different environments and subject matter. The model also presents a concrete experience which is shared by both the teacher and student. This indicates that they share a common experience in which they can learn from each other (Itin 1999).



Itin, C.M. (1999). Reasserting the philosophy of experiential education as a vehicle for change in the 21st century. Journal of Experiential Education, 22(2), 91-98.

5 comments:

  1. Hello Jenny,

    I came across your blog while searching for experimental learing. I am writing a book about pioneering, adventurous types of leadershi. I am wondering if you could suggest any reading for me that gives a sort of panoramic look at the kind of intelligence that is gained from being on the "edge" or the frontier, the kind of learning that happens during risk and adventure? That kind of stuff? Thanks so much for this blog. I have not come across anything like it. Very cool.

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  2. Thanks for your comment, I'm not very good at blogging, but I'm trying :)

    Paul Nicolazzo would probably be a great place for you to start. He is huge in the outdoor community and has established a lot of teaching/learning models for outdoor education that are commonly used in American University Outdoor Programs.

    Here are a few websites I found:
    --Structuring a learning experience:
    http://www.outdoored.com/articles/Article.aspx?ArticleID=201
    --Site management:
    http://www.outdoored.com/anm/templates/template1.aspx?articleid=886&zoneid=17
    --Leadership development
    http://www.outdoored.com/anm/templates/template1.aspx?articleid=886&zoneid=17


    There is a correlational graph depicting the relationship between learning and being on the edge that I have seen many times....I just can't seem to find it online right now. I'm pretty sure that Paul uses it as well and I think it would be relevant to your research. Let me keep looking and I'll get back to you. But I think the articles above may give you a good place to start, at least from the perspective of outdoor education.

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  3. James Neill may be relevant as well:
    http://www.wilderdom.com/research.php

    The cool thing about outdoor education is that it is such a "new" topic that most of the big names in the field are still alive :)

    Ive never heard of this guy (Benjamin Moore) but here is another article that may be of help:
    http://www.outdoored.com/Articles/Article.aspx?ArticleID=205


    Found it!!!

    I don't know how to post an image in a comment, so I'll do another blog for you.

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  4. You do a nice job of summarizing my work - much better than some. On your definition work - you may want to checkout - http://www.definitionsproject.com/definitions/index.cfm

    This was a project that was drawing connections in the domains you are interested in.

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  5. Hey Christian,
    First of all, I'm really surprised that you were able to find your way to my blog. I initially created it to facilitate order in my thinking process, but as you can tell, I haven't posted anything in quite some time. But, your comment has inspired me to start posting again. I suppose it will be one of my new years resolutions :)

    Second, thank you for sending the link on definitions. I think this will be very helpful, especially for the project that I'm working on now.

    Thank you for taking the time to post a comment. I hope you have a wonderful holiday!
    Jenny

    ReplyDelete